curated cinema: what Jeff Bezos threw away in The Washington Post
2017’s The Post is on Prime and Apple TV on both sides of the Atlantic.
Amazon
Trolls Band Together movie review: cheerful kindness, weirdified
There is gentle nonstop chaos in the trippy candy-colored assault. Genuinely good-natured, sweet without being sappy, more strange (in a good way) than kids’ movies usually are, and hard to dislike.
where (else) to find me online
tl;dr: I use my real name everywhere. If you’re not sure how to find me, search on “MaryAnn Johanson” and that should get you close.
say hello to Weekend Watchlist, delivered to subscribers’ in-boxes every Friday
In which I hope to save you from endlessly scrolling Netflix, Amazon, and other VOD services and point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
please review ‘Cultural Artifacts’ if you’ve read it!
Reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and anywhere else that sells ebooks really do help. Plus: A teaser from the book to tempt those who haven’t bought a copy yet. (Also: The serial science fiction project I’ve teased a few times is about to launch!)
behold the spruced-up FlickFilosopher.com
As you may have noticed, things are looking a lot fresher round these parts in the last few days…
Nomadland movie review: ain’t that America
Come on down for a gen-u-ine American dystopia at the crossroads of end-of-empire and late-stage capitalism. Chloé Zhao’s outsider’s eye is hugely sympathetic but unhindered by knee-jerk patriotism.
The Platform (El hoyo) movie review: bold and bitter food for thought
This sci-fi dreadfest immerses you into a shocking mystery, punches you in the gut, then grips you with a wisdom that transcends its obviousness, daring you to deny that its open savagery is our own.
movie-related flash-fiction freebie: “Disney Dystopia”
“Hey, so you wanna go to the disneys tonight?”
Tolkien movie review: it doesn’t wander, but it’s lost
This infuriatingly reductive biopic of the Hobbit author renders him as stolid and dull, and removes all the mystery and the wonder from creative inspiration. Literal-minded and free of magic.
